Small drones are being used in various application from last one decade. The spread of drone usages increased with DJI as well as open-source autopilot drone technologies. In open-source drone technology, GCS i.e., ground control station software plays important role. GCS is most important part of drone system which is used by drone pilot for drone flight management. 

Most of the open-source GCS are made as generic GCS software to get the basic job drone by the drone. They all did their job fantastically. However, since now adoption of drone is increasing in enterprises, massive improvements are expected by enterprises specifically in data analytics. Primarily following types of output data generated by drones are used in various applications by enterprises.  

1. Image  Most of the drones capture images while flying. These images are transported to remote sitting image analyst for analysis, or they are sent to automated system for further automated processing. Drone itself generally does not do anything with the images captured. 
2. Video  Similarly, all videos captured by drones are used by viewer sitting anywhere. Or they are transported to automated video analytics platform.  Drone itself generally does not do anything with the videos recorded. 
3. Sensor Data  If drone connected devices capture some sensor data, that is also transported to automated system for further analytics or action. Or that data is further shared with data scientist for some analysis and action. Drone itself generally does not do anything with the sensor data.
4. Delivery  Most of the drone deliveries are done from point to A to B where point B is always beyond visual line of site. In such cases, drones are required to be controlled by pilots sitting at distance i.e. drone command centre. To manage drone remotely, drone control data is required to transport to remote cloud. 

By seeing all above applications, data generated by drone has be transported to cloud for most for most of the time. Cloud based applications are the right place for any kind of image analytics, video streaming, content sharing and storage in current technology world. So, when you do not have your GCS integrated with cloud, everything is manual. You need to transport data manually, then process data manually and share it manually. Therefore, to save time and money, it is MUST to have your GCS software integrated with cloud application like AeroMegh. It helps to transport all data directly from drone to cloud automatically as soon as it is captured, and process data in real time. Here are some of the important benefits of having cloud integrated GCS software. 

1. Automated Data Transportation to cloud from drone directly. 
2. Near Real time data availability on cloud as soon as captured by drone. 
3. Better data security as automated data transportation is done from drone to cloud. 
4. Automated workflow building and generation of data as soon as received at cloud. 
5. Exploring new applications of drones as data analytics can be performed in real time and actions can be taken in real time. 
6. Auto sharing of data with required stakeholder 
7. Persistent storage of data for longer time. 

On top of this, when you have cloud integrated GCS software, you can manage your drone operations with better efficiency. You can build better business logics and manage your drone operations smoothly. For example, 

1. You can build team and manage drone operations spread across various regions. 
2. You can do authentication, authorization, and monitoring of each flight of drone. 
3. You can manage real time alerts and logging of your drones and can also have predictive maintenance using AI technologies for your drones. 
4. You can manage compliances and data reporting when compliance data is directly coming from GCS to your cloud application. 
5. You can do performance analysis of your pilots when your team is big and operations are spread across various geographics. 

There are such so many advantages and therefore when you are using your drones for some enterprise purpose, you need to have cloud integrated GCS software